Thursday, Feb. 26.
So, tomorrow I go visit my friend Tim in Vienna! I'm soo excited and I'm not exactly sure what to expect but fun fun fun! I am constantly hearing how beautiful Vienna is so I'm positive I'll have a great weekend!
I've been kinda a bum this week with updates. I guess now that I've wandered up and down every single street in "downtown" Krakow I now have to explore what lies inside these beautiful buildings. So, to summarize what happened since Monday. drinks at a bar named "Propaganda" filled with old communist posters with Matt and Swatties. watched the Goodfellas. hung around. was lazy. Tonight matt and i tried to get into 2 concerts: 1 klezmer, 1 classical. Apparently in Poland when they say the concert starts at a certain time you have to be there before that time to get in. so.... new lesson. instead we just ended up eating out.

Monday Feb 23rd- Rebecca came to visit me in Krakow! She is on this whirl-wind central European tour with two of her friends from Paris. I had a good time giving her and her friends a food tour of Krakow. First hot chocolate, second pierogis, drinks, then back to their hostel. Hopefully, some pics will surface.

Kazimierz

Feb 20- Woke up pretty late. Matt and I had decided to we would walk around Kazimierz and visit the Galicia Jewish Museum. Although the Galicia J.M. was small it was filled with about 50? pictures of current vestiges of Jewish life in Galicia. So it entailed pictures of modern, neglected synagogues, skeletons of buildings, once-Jewish cemetaries plowed over to create death camps, current Krakovian celebrations of Jewish life. Later, will join Matt and his cousin out on the town. Its the weekend before Lent so apparently tonight there should be an even larger number of partiers! Ha, which is hard to believe for Krakow. Pictures- Top Right Tempel Synagogue.

Feb 19-20:
So, on Thursday the Swatties, two beautiful Austrians (Victoria and Gerard, Victoria is a roommate of one of the Swatties), Matt and I went out on the town! Lots of fun, hopefully pictures will surface.
Feb 20: Spa! Facial and chocolate massage -- first and LAST time mom, it was pleasant but I'll wait for Gordon's :-) -- then I got lost in the outskirts of Krakow. I'm still not sure where I was. Found another outdoor market. For nightlife: Matt and I went out and had hot rapsberry wine and watched some Polish cabaret. Pretty silly. oh and for dinner, i had a mexican 'pancake' more like polish crepe filled with beans, cheese, corn, etc! Picture- Slowacki Theatre.

Feb 18- Should probably mention that last night was great. Hung out with American friends from Swarthmore at a very potent hookah bar. One mint, one peach hookah. On our way to the 24 hour pierogi stand ran into a mob of British 18 year olds on a "booze cruise" of Krakow.Woah.

Today was another wonderful day. During my Polish lesson Pani Jagoda -Jagoda means blueberry in Polish :-) - and I went to the outdoor market to use my new vocabulary for shopping. She is very sweet and patient with me. During my 2.5 hour break I ducked into a cafe for a honey latte than took pictures of Wawel Hill in the snow ...again. I hope to go take pictures of Kazimierz tomorrow. After our art history lecture I went back to the Massolit bookstore, drank vanilla chai tea and practiced my Polish. Once I became hungry I left to find dinner and ended up running into 3 other English speakers! What good luck! 2 Americans and one Brit who have been here since the summer, fell in love with Krakow and are now 'indefinite students'. They were very cordial and I joined them for dinner at the local cheap but delicious Bar Vega (vegatarian cuisine). I invited them to join us tomorrow night when Matt, the Swatties + I hit up the town! It is becoming 8 people, quite the group! I'm happy to have made more friends!

Feb. 17th- In between Polish lesson and art history lecture I had a 2.5 hour slot to do hw and explore. Mostly I ended up experimenting with my camera in this neat little English book store- Massolit Books- where they sell bagels w/ schmear. Only one other bagel place in Krakow exists, in the Jewish Quarter. Bought 2 books to keep me from incessantly surfing the internet; Yiddish and The Elagin Affair (with other stories). Going out later tonight with friends! Shisha hookah bar or to Kazimierz? Both? Photos: Top- Goober in my dorm window. Top right and bottom Massolit Café

Feb 16- Figured out laundry system. And drying racks! Haha, walked around city lugging this dry rack around. Felt like a way less cool version of a surfer.
Feb 15- Legit Indian restuarant, Orient Express, was really delicious. Got to meet up with new friends. I feel guilty for not being too adventurous with Polish food though, I mean, I'm not going to find it any better than here.

Pada sneig (Snow falls in Polish)

Feb. 13- Snow continues to fall on the ground in Krakow. The city looks especially picturesque and moody under the cover of snow. Kinda a pain to walk around though, very slushy. Met 3 other Americans from Swarthmore College on a different program, well more like sabotauged them in the hallway and begged them to become our friends, so hopefully we didn't seem too desperate and we'll be seeing them again. Later at night, Matt and I went out to eat at this Cafe Crepe where they don't serve crepes! I had a pumpkin salad (yum! my favorite thing so far) and this hard lemonade creation. From our success Thursday night in finding a really fun (if not super smoky) jazz club, Matt and I went out to find the fun spot to be on Friday nights.
Feb. 14- Whoops! forgot it was Valentine's Day. The snow has piled up to become even slush-ier. Met Anna at 10:30am to get this amazing tour of the city including: Wawel Hill, Wawel Cathedral, Franciscian Church, and St. Mary's Basilica. Later, Matt and I are going out to Bar Smaczny for "Krakow's best pierogis" and to the Kazimierz district to Alchemia for drinks. Images- Top Left, Wawel Cathedral. Top Right-kids sledding on Wawel Hill. Middle- The dragon of Wawel Hill which breathes fire (except during the winter). Below photos both thanks to google. Below Left- Stained Glass in Art Nouveau style at Franciscian Cathedral. Right- Interior St. Mary's.

Snow in Kraków!

Feb. 12th-Day 6. Woke up with snow on the ground. That + my cold + my major hangover from last nights 21st celebration (j/k) made me decide to forget the run. I hope that doesn't turn into a habit. Anyway, today I dressed warmly and roamed around Krakow! It was beautiful, plus I found a bunch of fun little places to sit and get warm. I don't have a favorite café yet, but I do have a favorite drink - Chai latte- which every café here seems to have. Yep, very exotic, something unique to cracow. Later, Matt and I are thinking about hitting the University Club, Rotunda, to see what nightlife on Thursdays is like here.

Delayed Birthday Post

Feb. 11- (day 5)
Woke up early for a b-day run in the ran. Terrible idea because I was too stubborn to turn around to go back inside and get a sweater, and now I have a cold. Oh well, I was bound to have to find a pharmacy anyway during my stay. I just made it sooner rather than later. Next, Matt, Anna, and I went to Collegium Maius to gain a greater sense of the history surrounding Jagiellonian University. We arrived just at 11am to watch the grand Coo-coo clock in the main courtyard :-). After Polish lessons and a quick tour of an English bookstore by Pani Beata, we went to celebrate my bday. Matt and I went to Taco Mexicano and had the weirdest burrito ever. ..the texture was just strange, and it was coupled with cabbage...oh no no, i'll just havta open my own place. Later, we went to get dessert at this one café where the hot cocoa was more like a thick chocolate soup! Even I couldn't handle how rich it was...but that was also probably due to the sore throat. Image- Collegium Maius courtyard

I'm keeping this blog to keep everyone updated on my time spent in Europe so that I'm not clogging your email boxes with fascinating tales of how much more exciting my life is than yours. You already get that while I'm at home, and I think that would just be a little braggy now. ... Anyways.
Today we (Matt, my roommate and other Lexia student) finally have our internet up and running so I'm using all this pent up energy from not being online constantly to start up this blog.
So Far....
Full Day 1 (Saturday Feb 6): Got up early. Ran across the street in the park. Got some strange looks, probably cuz I was the only runner ... and a girly at that... and i looked so fly. But as a Grinnell xc runner, we are pretty used to that, all of the above. Something I'm not used to though is 48º sunny weather! While all the Cracovians were walking around in sleeping bags, hats and gloves I was wearing a light weight rain jacket and sunglasses. Ok, there were other clothing items on me too...but nothing interesting. Later, Anna gave Matt and I a practical tour of Krakow. So, where our classes would be held, where the post offices are, pharmacies, tram system (I didn't understand at all),etc. etc. Its so strange to walk through Krakow and think that this is where I'm going to live for about 4 months. But again, Grinnell has prepared me for big city life. Thank god Matt speaks Polish very well because I just do the smile, speak slow English, and point thing. I guess the one thing that I add to Matt and my partnership is my navigation skills at getting around the city. Image- picture of Wawel Castle.

Day 2 (Sunday Feb 8): Anna gave Matt and I a tour of the Zwierzyniec district and Kosciuszko Mound. Later, Matt and I wandered around Krakow. I think I got us lost looking for an internet cafe. Later, we met up with Matt's cousins and friends in their bachelor pad and engaged in the greatest of Polish past times Vodka + Techno (and some Beyonce for international unification). They were impressed by the American girl who took shots of vodka without any chaser, but Polish vodka goes down so smooth (compared to Hawkeye) it really wasn't much of an effort on my part. Well, not too much "Don't be a hero Maggie". Images- Kosciuzko Mound

Day 3 (Mon Feb 9): Went to our first day of class where in 1.5 hours we crammed 1000's of years of Polish history. Which is interesting to hear from their perspective. Round 2 (1800's to present) tomorrow. Again, more roaming about the city buying yummy food the whole time. Image- (below) Krakow rainy day

Day 4 (Tue Feb 10): First day of Polish. Now I know how everyone else feels when they look at my name. My stomach dropped when i see all the "cz" and "ps" and "dz's". Some words only have one vowel in them. Or expressions like, "wszystko w porzadku"... are you serious? Anyways, we've decided my name is Magda Kamraczewska. So thanks to all those people out there who call me Magda for preparing me to react to that name. Oh, and another big thanks to all those people snickering behind my back for letting me go by Kamraczewski...a boys name. So, tomorrows my b-day and I already have a plan to celebrate..but you'll hear about that later. Image- (right) café

thanks for bearing with this exhaustingly long post.